Microsoft’s new console is called Xbox 8?

The aftermath of a legal battle in China suggests that the next generation home console from Microsoft will be called the Xbox 8, a reference to both Windows 8 and the infinity symbol.

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The Internet is alive with rumours that the next generation home console from Microsoft will be called the Xbox 8, after the company fought and won a legal battle with a cybersquatter.According to website Fusible , Microsoft’s battle with Chinese resident Cheng Juan was over the domain names XboxPhone.com, XboxTablet.com, XboxLiveTV.com, XboxCompanion.com, Xbox8.us and Xbox8.org.

As you can see most of these are generic enough that they can be discounted as Microsoft merely protecting its trademarks, and making sure Juan doesn’t fill the sites with anything disreputable. The term Xbox 8 though is a mystery, especially since there’s no sign of registering any numbers before or after it.Of course with Microsoft the number eight is vitally important, as the forthcoming Windows 8 and Windows Phone 8 technology represent two of the company’s most important new product launches for decades.As recently as E3 in June it’s been implied that the Xbox family of consoles will closely integrate with the two technologies. So to find that the next generation console is actually being branded as Xbox 8 would be no great surprise.

Currently the new console is known only by a series of codenames, including Durango, Xbox Loop, Project 10, and, most commonly, Xbox 720. Even the recently leaked roadmap document called the new console that but there’s never seemed much likelihood that the final hardware would use the name.

Another rumoured name though is Xbox Infinity, and if you turn the digit eight on its side it does look like the infinity symbol. Whether that’s just a coincidence, and whether everyone’s just reading too much into a simple legal case, we won’t know until Microsoft finally announces the new system. But that’s not expected to happen until next spring at the earliest.Video:Check out the Xbox Media Briefing highlights